The present invention is directed to puppet-like apparatus and more specifically to a puppet-like head which provides plausible mouth movements simulating speech in response to an audio sound source.
Very effective techniques have been used in the past to provide for puppet-like heads simulating speech. For example, in theme amusement parks mouth movements are preprogrammed by a separate circuit to conform to the audio source. The mouth movements themselves are implemented with air cylinders and high cost hardware. From a more elementary standpoint talking dolls are effectively preprogrammed also for relatively simple one or two cycle mouth movements.
Thus there is a need for a puppet-like toy which provides a plausible simulation of mouth movements in conjunction with an audio sound source but yet at a fairly reasonable cost. Moreover, there is a need for a toy-like device as described above where a child can actually be an essential part of the simulated talking process.